October 12, 2006 17:16 PM
Najib Hopes No One Will Dispute Official Data On Equity Ownership

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12 (Bernama) — Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said Thursday he hoped that no one will dispute the government’s official data on the equity ownership of bumiputera and non-bumiputera.

He said the government stood by the accuracy of the official data.

“We hope this will be accepted and not disputed by anyone,” he told reporters after the presentation of Aidilfitri goodies from contributors to the Malaysian Armed Forces at the Defence Ministry here.

Just because the Government says it’s accurate, no one should dispute it?

“We have explained in public statements about the basis of the calculation made by the EPU (Economic Planning Unit) all this while and all quarters concerned had understood the methodology used by the EPU.

All quarters can understand it. It’s flawed, and has to be reexamined.

“We do not want something done that causes discord. Possibly, at the beginning, such discord could be seen as intellectual discourse but if it touches on sensitive issues, it could hurt the feelings of certain races and could be regarded as sedition even though that was not the intention.”

Numbers and formulas don’t sow discord. People do.
Sedition?? For putting out a study? The DPM was doing so well – until he opened his mouth.

He was commenting on a controversial study by the Centre for Public Policy Studies (CPPS) of think-tank Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (Asli) which concluded that bumiputera equity ownership could be as high as 45 per cent, more than double the government’s official figure of 18.9 per cent.

Asli president Mirzan Mahathir has issued a public apology over the CPPS report and also retracted it, saying the study was based on flawed assumptions and calculations and its conclusion could not be “vigorously justified”.

Following the retraction, CPPS director Dr Lim Teck Ghee announced he would resign end of this month to take responsibility for the report’s fallout, but he said he stood by the findings and disagreed with Mirzan’s statement.

Najib said the government hoped everyone would adopt a responsible attitude on this issue because of its “big implications“.

A responsible government would have studied the report thoroughly .
What ‘s this (stress on the inverted commas) “big implication”? You mean like losing the people’s trust (and votes), having nothing to show after achieving the targets?

“It would have been better to just submit the (study’s) findings to the government instead of making them public,” he added. [snip…]